Western Digital working on 20,000rpm HDD to rival SSD?

Solid state drives may have their benefits when it comes to reliability, speed, low power consumption, and small dimensions. But the storage market is mainly driven by cost-per-gigabyte, and in that regard, SSDs still can’t compete with traditional spinning hard disk drives.

In light of this, Western Digital is reportedly developing a 20,000rpm Raptor hard drive – twice the speed of its current Raptor lineup – to counter the increasing popularity of SSDs. The drive is apparently a 2.5-inch model with a custom 3.5-inch ‘caddy’ similar to that of the recently announced VelociRaptor, which will act as both a heatsink for cooling and provide a stiff frame to counter vibration and to help with noise-reduction as well.

One particular drawback in today’s energy-conscious times, however, is that a 20K drive would need more electricity to spin it. But I can imagine enthusiasts who demand nothing but the best when it comes to performance would gladly buy one of these beasts.